First-Person Shooters that was not short on story/atmosphere

I think you're seeing a little topic drift that's reflecting the rpg-centric population we've got here, JDR13.
 
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I'm playing F.E.A.R. right now(2nd time) and loving it. You must have missed something if you didn't understand the purpose of the Replica soldiers, they were definitely part of the story. I can't wait to start playing the Extraction Point expansion.

The role of the Replica Soldiers are confusing at best for me. Reading the plot analysis, Paxton was trained to be a military commander and he took control over the Replica Soldiers cloned by ATC. However, there are too many of them to make sense and they are absolutely everywhere. The main character of F.E.A.R is afterall an agent working for the US government along with Delta Force, shouldnt they call in the US Army? A single US specop facing a whole hostile army on US soil sounds a bit over the edge. That the Replica Soldiers are in fact telephatically controlled is a fact that isnt as obvious as it should be.

I'm a little confused about this thread though. The title says "First-Person Shooters" but there are some titles being mentioned that are more RPG-Adventure than shooter.
Did you mean any game featuring a first-person view?

Games in which you shoot stuff in a first person view. All of the games involve killing alot of stuff through aiming and blasting. It's not seldom such games are cross-genré with personal choices and some RPG elements.
 
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I think you're seeing a little topic drift that's reflecting the rpg-centric population we've got here, JDR13.

I confess I am a RPG junkie, so when I see a RPG in FPS mode I might call it a FPS. :)

I am not so sure im going to call Oblivion or Dark Messiah of Might & Magic as FPS though since they do not really contain alot of shooting. Granted, you can use bows and fireballs but you do not lawnmove alot of foes.

Truth is, finding a "straight" game today is difficult.
From year 2000 and beyond the first-person genré expanded and the first-person mode was accepted in more genrés, including roleplaying and strategic games. The quest for realism have made sure that most first-person shooters of today incorperate stuff like stealth skills, multiple endings (based on choice) and point assignment.

In the end, good FPS skills still help, even in Vampire: Bloodlines and Oblivion/Morrowind. They are simply multi genré; RPG-FPS. As long as you can just pick up a weapon and rely on your own accuracy they are an FPS to me, but they can also be other genrés.
 
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I would add 'Boiling Point' to the list. Sure it has RPG elements, and is mission based, but ultimately it is a sandbox shooter. It does a nice job of putting you in the role of Saul and immersing you into the fictional South American country.

As for the Jedi Knight series, I was confused at first when JemyM said 'especially JKII and Jedi Academy', but the problem you mention with 1995 - 2000 seems to explain that. Regardless, I think that the story of the original Jedi Knight is one of the best in a FPS - the novelization of the combined Dark Forces & Jedi Knight worked very well.

I also think that the setting of Return to Castle Wolfenstein was quite good - the story was pretty trite, but it was a nice environment juxtaposing WWII and the occult stuff.

Also liked Tron 2.0's story and game world.
 
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I thought the first Max Payne game had great atmosphere and game play. It was very gritty and the bullet-time effect (one of the first uses of it in a pc game) was great.
 
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I would add 'Boiling Point' to the list. Sure it has RPG elements, and is mission based, but ultimately it is a sandbox shooter. It does a nice job of putting you in the role of Saul and immersing you into the fictional South American country.

I would love to add it, if it had not been for every website I know ripping the game apart. Better hope for the "sequel", "White Gold: War in Paradise".

As for the Jedi Knight series, I was confused at first when JemyM said 'especially JKII and Jedi Academy', but the problem you mention with 1995 - 2000 seems to explain that. Regardless, I think that the story of the original Jedi Knight is one of the best in a FPS - the novelization of the combined Dark Forces & Jedi Knight worked very well.

Well, you are right. DF and JK to me was a bit outdated, made before 3d games started to feel "cinematic". The cutscenes in both games are quite good though. Maybe I should remove the bit about "Outcast/Academy" though.

I also think that the setting of Return to Castle Wolfenstein was quite good - the story was pretty trite, but it was a nice environment juxtaposing WWII and the occult stuff.

Return of Castle Wolfenstein is one of thoose FPS'es that made me frustrated over the lack of comments from the protagonist. :(

Also liked Tron 2.0's story and game world.

I havnt played that one myself :(
 
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I thought the first Max Payne game had great atmosphere and game play. It was very gritty and the bullet-time effect (one of the first uses of it in a pc game) was great.

Max Payne 1 & 2 are brilliant. I wouldnt count them as FPS though. :)
 
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Max Payne 1 & 2 are brilliant. I wouldnt count them as FPS though. :)

You're right... I forgot that they were 3rd person games... oops :)
 
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Crap, I reached the size limit of the first post.
 
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You're right... I forgot that they were 3rd person games... oops :)

The most hillarious part of Max Payne was to me after Max is drugged...

Max Payne: There was something disturbingly familiar about the letter before me. The handwriting was all pretty curves.
Michelle's voice: You are in a graphic novel.
Max Payne: The truth split my skull open, a glaring green light washing the lies away. All of my past was just fragmented still shots, words hanging in the air like balloons. I was in a graphic novel. Funny as Hell, it was the most horrible thing I could think of.

---

Max Payne: There was something disturbingly familiar about the letter before me. The handwriting was all pretty curves.
Michelle's voice: You are in a computer game, Max.
Max Payne: The truth was a burning green crack through my brain. Weapon statistics hanging in the air, glimpsed out of the corner of my eye. Endless repetition of the act of shooting, time slowing down to show off my moves, the paranoid feel of someone controlling my every step. I was in a computer game. Funny as Hell, it was the the most horrible thing I could think of.
 
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I would love to add it, if it had not been for every website I know ripping the game apart. Better hope for the "sequel", "White Gold: War in Paradise".
Yeah, I was also hard on the game - but only because it was a buggy mess and ran like a pig on high-end systems. ;)
From my review:
Boiling Point is a highly ambitious attempt at this genre-bridging game type.

Unfortunately, as a whole this is only a fair game. It's plagued by bugs that cause occasional crashes, what seem like memory leaks, some scripting and AI issues, obvious script translation artifacts, and some more serious problems with quests and non-player characters. In addition, the computer requirements are gargantuan. Even on a high-end system the game sometimes has issues.

For all of the problems though, there is an enjoyable and lengthy game to play if you can make it through.

Return of Castle Wolfenstein is one of thoose FPS'es that made me frustrated over the lack of comments from the protagonist. :(
I loved the original game on my Apple ][+, and eagerly gobbled up Wolf 3D when it came around, so this was one I was definitely looking forward to ... but it clearly doesn't hold up over time as well as many other games.
 
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The role of the Replica Soldiers are confusing at best for me. Reading the plot analysis, Paxton was trained to be a military commander and he took control over the Replica Soldiers cloned by ATC. However, there are too many of them to make sense and they are absolutely everywhere. The main character of F.E.A.R is afterall an agent working for the US government along with Delta Force, shouldnt they call in the US Army? A single US specop facing a whole hostile army on US soil sounds a bit over the edge. That the Replica Soldiers are in fact telephatically controlled is a fact that isnt as obvious as it should be.

Did you use the phones and laptops throughout the game? You will get a lot of background info from mailbox messages and from uploading data to F.E.A.R HQ.
Anyway, I kind of disagree that there are too many Replica soldiers. Compared to other FPSs, I got the impression that the body count was relatively low actually.

Secondly, the Replica soldiers are a clone army so even if you would consider their numbers as high, it shouldn't come as a surprise.

Thirdly, regarding the solo trip of the F.E.A.R point man (your character), you have to be aware that you have supernatural abilities (warning: spoilers ahead!).
Remember the squads (Delta Force, F.E.A.R and ATC, IIRC) who got ripped to shreds by the Replica soldiers and by Fettel? Why should the government send even more troops to their certain death?
You are the only one able to survive the attacks of Replica and the paranormal phenomenons because of your superior reflexes (it's why you have bullet time... you are actually moving superfast when you activate it, not slowing time down).
Remember. You are an offspring of Alma. You are not even really human. You are an experimental supersoldier that is set loose to defeat its own master/mother (Alma) and at the end of the game (after the credits have rolled by), you learn that the experiment was considered as a success and that the government (or at least parts of it) was actually in on it the whole time. They didn't want or need any witnesses. The whole idea of the experiment was to get rid of Alma who got too powerful and went out of control. The government knew that no regular soldier would be up to the job. They knew that only an offspring of Alma herself would stand a chance. Everything went according to plan or at least seemingly... I don't think the gov't knows at the end of the game that Alma is hanging on to the escape chopper's door :biggrin: ... they probably believe you killed her successfully.
 
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I would say the MoH series up until after MoHAA, or well I haven't played any of the games after that but mostly because they didn't get that good reviews.

There are a lot of atmospheric evenings in the games and especially MoHAA up in the small Alp town is just very harmonic.

The story can be very fragmented though. But still present.

But yes, Medal of Honor, Medal of Honor: Underground and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.

Regards Asbjørn

PS. I won't take another fight over this game so it's okay if you critize it. It's just a suggestion.
 
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Boiling point is probably the best FPS I have ever played, followed by AvP and AvP2. No other FPS has held my attention apart from Doom 1&2 and Duke3d which was years and years ago.
 
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I have only played two MoH:AA and the expansion Spearhead and I loved both. They really make you feel like you are part of a war. Two levels I remember clearly; one where you must defend two borders, running back and forth, trying to survive while enemies just pour in over the map. The second is a map (i believe the first in Spearhead) when you land with a parachute in total mayhem.

I wanted to get hold of Rising Sun but it slipped through my fingers and I never got around to play it.
 
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But yes, Medal of Honor, Medal of Honor: Underground and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.

I really didn't know that there were PSx versions of MoH before MohAA. Interesting. I liked MoHAA, but it was so short and ended so abruptly ... but it really did a good job in immersing you in war ... Spearhead wasn't very good, neither was Breakthrough ... in fact they just got worse and worse ...
 
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Sadly, I couldn't stand MoHAA, mainly because of the voices.
 
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If I remember things correctly German voices (in the original version) sounded just wrong. It irritated me so much that I stopped playing after a while.
 
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